Everybody has these films they love to observe again and again. For STATus Report host Alex Hogan, the 1993 thriller “The Fugitive” has been in rotation since he was 8 years outdated. Not too long ago, Hogan realized the film’s plot — centered round a pharmaceutical firm scandal — is strictly the type of story STAT would cowl if it had been actual.
(Spoilers forward …)
The movie stars Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, who — when not leaping off spillways and dodging bullets — discovers that the fictional pharmaceutical large Devlin MacGregor is falsifying medical trial knowledge to be able to get a blockbuster therapy for coronary artery illness accredited. The drug, RDU-90 (model title Provasic) was inflicting liver injury in sufferers, however Kimble realizes the samples had been tampered with to get the drug previous the Meals and Drug Administration and ostensibly make billions of {dollars}.
If one thing like this really occurred in 2026, it could be an all-hands-on-deck scenario right here at STAT. We’d have our biotech and pharma reporters overlaying the scandal, DC reporters discovering out what occurred on the FDA, and investigative reporters chasing down leads about Devlin MacGregor.
On this particular Oscars season episode of STATus Report, Hogan has engaged STAT’s intrepid reporters to think about how they’d soar into the Provasic scandal if it landed on our desks at present.